TIFF, TAFF AND LULU

Sisters and brothers squabble. Even sisters and brothers with frilly cow ears, red snouts, green skin and tufty hairdos. Despite her characters' unusual appearance, Italian author-artist Montanari invents a family with whom many youngsters can identify. Mummy, in an effort to prevent fights about who is last, strives to take care of all three offspring at once, using a variety of hilariously outsize domestic tools to feed and groom them. "To avoid arguments, Mummy squeezes toothpaste onto the same huge toothbrush. Then she brushes Taff, Tiff, and Lulu's teeth from right to left." In a weird, fish-eye-angle view, Montanari pictures the children standing in line open-mouthed as Mummy wields the giant paste-bearing instrument, but it doesn't work. " 'Why am I always last?' Taff pouts." The spoon that feeds the trio breakfast stretches across a spread (" 'Why am I always last?' Tiff whimpers"). The last straw comes when Mummy purchases a Seussian scooter that fits the whole family, but the children fight anyway, of course, causing Mummy to fall and hurt herself. "Just look where your quarrels have landed us!" she shouts. "I love you all the same huge, identical way!" Tiff, Taff and Lulu bring Mummy home and care for her without a murmur—for a while. The roughness and strange angles of Montanari's acrylic-and-pencil compositions echo the troll-like children's contrary natures, but the artwork manages at the same time to convey the warmth of Mummy's huge, identical love for her creatures. Ages 4-8. (Aug.)